Top-prop for carriages



(No Model.)

w. H. SHIBLEY' & L. PAYNE. TOP PROP FOR GARRIAGBS Patented 001:. 16, 1888.

N PETERS, mm-uuw mr. Washinglon. D. C.

UNiTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

\VILLIAM H. SHIRLEY AND LEVI PAYNE, OF LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.

TOP-PROP FO R CARRIAGES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 391,090, dated October 16, 1888.

Application filed February 13 1858 T 0 all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, VILLIAM H. SHIRLEY and LEYT PAYNE, citizens ofthe United States, residing at Louisville, in the county of Jefferson and State of Kentucky, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Top- Props for Carriages; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to that portion of the frame-work of a carriage-top which serves to hold the bows braced apart, and is called a top-prop.

The object of the invention is, first, to provide means for securing the top-prop to a bow in a manner to strengthen the bow rather than to weaken it, as boring a hole through it to receive a bolt would do; second, to adapt a prop-clip to be made by the processes known to sheet-iron work, so that sheetiron may be substituted for cast metal and be lighter, stronger, and cheaper, and to adapt the said clip to hold a common screw-bolt having the form of head commercially known as a plowbolt, so that the bolt may be set with any quarter of its circumference upward to adjust it to bring a fancy-headed nut in the required position when screwed tight home, and, third, to adapt a ferrule which may be made of very light sheet-iron, and yet be stiff and keep its place without liability to turn upon the cloth, thus preventing wear of the cloth.

To this end the invention consists in the construction and combination of parts form ing a top-prop for carriages, hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure I is a top view of our top-prop, showing a bow and a portion of the carriage cover in horizontal section. Fig. II is a horizontal section of the same excepting the bolt, which is in plan View, all parts being of full size. Fig. III is an inside face View of the clip, and Fig. IV is an inside view of the ferrule.

6 represents the usual wooden bow of a carriage or buggy top.

7 represents our clip, made of sheet-iron, punched to receive the body of the screw-bolt 8, and struck up in the form of a square-based pyramid around the bolt-hole to receive a bolt- Serial No. 263.811. (No model.)

head of plow-bolt shape. The interior of the pyramid is a many-sided socket fitted to receive a many-sided bolt-head, so that the head may be set at any quarter in the socket. The clip is bent with two square corners to pass around one edge of the bow and hook upon its inner face and is secured to the outer face of the bow by means of two wood-screws, 9. It is common to fasten clips with foursuch screws; but so many screwholes weaken the bow, While our clip being hooked around the bow is held thereto more firmly than by such additional screws and strengthens the bow at this point. When placed upon the market, these clips will be shaped each with a socket to receive the bolt 8; but it is not necessary that the angles be bent. That may be left to the carriage-builder, who can readily shape the clip and hammer it tightly around the edge of a bow of any form and size, or the clips may be furnished ready bent of different sizes.

10 represents a brace for holding the bows apart to'stretch the cover 13. The main service of this top-prop is to serve as a stud for attaching the brace 10. Y

11 is a screw-nut of any common or preferred pattern screwed upon the bolt to hold the brace in place.

12 is a ferrule to which we have given the shape of a conical dish with corrugated sides. The corrugations are, first, for the purpose of taking up the metal like a ruffled collar, so that the ferrule may be upset from sheet metal without the necessity of drawing the metal, and, second, they produce a corrugated base to rest upon the cover 13 and bear it down upon the corners of the pyramid of the clip over the bolthead, the ferrule thereby being secured from revolving on the bolt even though the brace 10 should revolve, thus preventing wear to the cloth cover 13. WVhile our main purpose is to adapt our whole top-prop to be made of wrought-iron, in order to produce a better and cheaper top-prop than is usually made partly of cast metal, yet some of the advantages of our invention would be obtained were both the clip and ferrule cast of malleable iron, brass, or steel in the forms described. Either this clip or ferrule might be placed on the market as an article of manufacture, because the bolt, the nut, and the brace are common. The ferrule would serve with other clips,

and the clip with other ferrules. The bolt, being separated from the clip, may be readily replaced by another bolt if it becomes broken or if its thread is stripped off.

Having thus fully described our invention, what wedesire to secure by Letters Patent is the following:

1. The combination, in a top-prop, ofa bolt having a many-sided head and a clip perforated to receive the body of the bolt and having a many-sided socket around the perforation to receive the bolt-head, substantially as shown and described.

2. The combination, in top-props, of a clip having a pyramidal socket and a bolt having a pyramidal or pYow-bolt-shaped head fitted to said socket, substantially as shown and described.

3. The combination, in, top-props, of a per forated clip socket-shaped around the perforation and a bolt having a head fitted to the said socket, substantially as shown and described, whereby the bolt may be held with its head against the bow of a carriage and be prevented from revolving.

4. In top-props, a clip havingamany-sided socket in its inner side adapted to receive and fit a many-sided bolt-head, substantially as shown and described, whereby the bolt may be held from revolving.

5. In top-props, a clip formed in book shape to fit the edge and two sides of a bow and having a many-sided socket in its inner side to receive a many-sided bolt-head, substantially as shown and described, whereby the bolt-head may be held firmly against the bow.

6. In top-props, a tapering dish shaped ferrule corrugated both outside and inside and perforated through its head to receive a bolt, substantially as shown and described.

In testimony whereof we affix our signatures in presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM H. SHIBLEY. LEVI PAYNE.

Witnesses:

" J AS. E. GAITHER,

J NO. F. WILLIAMs. 

